Dueling dialects

[James A. Landau]

In a message dated >  Fri, 20 Aug 2004 10:00:57 -0400,  David Bergdahl <
> einstein at FROGNET.NET> writes
>
> Ed (from SE PA/Philly) wrote:
>
> No way, the classical 3-way distinction was: Mary [e],
> merry [@], marry [ae]. Any other pronunciation is
> barbaric :)
>
> so merry = Murray??
>
> 4-way splitting David from Valley Stream, LI, NY

Make that a five-way split (six ways if you include "Maury").

Murray is the modern form of "Morey", an old Scottish name, best known for
"The Bonny Earl of Morey" of  Lady Mondegreen fame.

This datum, oddly enough, was told to me by an African-American woman whose
surname is Murray, who admits that she is NOT related to the Bonny Earl of
Morey but does consider him an honorary relative.

The mention of "Blount" and /blunt/ reminds me of an anti-eye pronunciation.
After the US victory at Buena Vista in the Mexican War (the battle that made
Jefferson Davis's reputation and thereby led to the Northern victory in the
Civil War), veterans in at least two states (Kentucky and New Jersey) came home
and founded towns whose names are written as "Buena" but pronounced /'boo
nuh/.

     - Jim Landau